Late Night Tips

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I thought I would start a thread for the Late Night crowd since most of the topics these days revolve around the rope drop.

Tip #1 - The posted wait time estimates are generally overstated, sometimes extremely so, late in the evening. For example, I was in Hollywood Studios on a recent June evening and Midway Mania had a 70 minute wait time posted at 9 pm. This is about the time that everyone and their brother is waiting for the matinee performance of Fantasmic and no one was milling around the ride entrance.

I asked the attendant if 70 mins was accurate and he said no, it's probably closer to 15. He was right. We ended up riding 3 or 4 times back to back then headed over to the late showing of Fantasmic. Only needed to stroll in about 10 minutes before show time.

That's my top tip. What's yours?

 

[JimmyV]

...at 9 pm. This is about the time that everyone and their brother is waiting for the matinee performance of Fantasmic .

There is an afternoon performance of Fantasmic? And people line up for it at 9:00 p.m.?

 

[lroger01]

Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain Railway, Splash Mountain, Test Track, Speedway, Tea cups, Dumbo, Expedition Everest, and Tower of Terror are all better/different/interesting at night.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

There is an afternoon performance of Fantasmic? And people line up for it at 9:00 p.m.?

Sorry, I should have used the term "early bird" and not "matinee". What is the correct term for "the one that's so busy that I won't go to it"? I think you knew what I meant.

 

[Delirium]

Fantasyland as a whole is best experienced late at night. especially if the park is open past 11:00 P.M. Lines on everything are virtually non-existent.

 

[Sparkly]

I love MK at night! Dumbo at night is not to be missed with the lighting effects. Try watching Wishes from BTMR too- so magical!

 

[disney meema]

Joining this thread as we are night owls from the west. We also have found the ride lines much shorter after the last parade and fireworks ... Then if it's magic evening hours too, oh so nice : )

 

[maryj11]

Glad you posted this because in stead of rope drop we plan on doing before closing . I figure people with small children will leave after the fireworks and we will stay. MK is open until 12:00 am when we are going so I can't wait !

 

[ZachnElli]

Does anyone know how late Starbucks is open? We will be there June 1st (really the 2nd) for evening EMH from 1 - 3am! Super excited about it, but might need some caffeine to keep me going!

 

[pachelbel9]

Ride Thunder mountain during the fireworks. We accidentally timed it perfectly for this on our last trip. My nieces were so excited to see the fireworks while on the ride.

 

[dzneelvr]

ok...this is where I'm confused. We'll be going first time with the Magic Band concept. We normally do a ton of rides very late and never had a problem before getting in. Do we have to do anything FP/magic bands or can we go straight to the ride and line up to walk on?? We are not big fans of the 2-3 FP per day with the magic bands but know we have to play the game this trip. I sure hope we don't have to use them for late EMH parks

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Ride Thunder mountain during the fireworks. We accidentally timed it perfectly for this on our last trip. My nieces were so excited to see the fireworks while on the ride.

Splash Mountain is also a good one during Wishes. Both rides are usually walkons by that time, so it's pretty easy to time your ride to coincide with the fireworks.

 

[Elizamarie763]

Thanks so much for this thread! I'm definitely a night owl and I typically work until 10 or 11pm so even though I want to do rope drop, I'm just not sure it will work for me! I know I'm going to want to be at the parks late into the night

 

[Ryansdad0727]

I love BTMR during wishes and the old Dumbo was awesome during wishes. The new Dumbo is pretty cool also. We always hit the second showing of the Main Street Electrical Parade. We make sure that we are where we're want to be for the 9 parade and wishes. Either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland. We can hit most of the rides during those two shows. After the shows most of the rides are walk on except for Space Mountain. It's my favorite time to be in MK.

 

[brielise]

We did RD a couple times on our last trip but would be exhausted by the end of the day... and I much prefer the parks at night. Glad we aren't the only ones!! Definitely subscribing to this thread!

 

[shyjade]

If you are an early eater like we are, make sure you plan accordingly for a late night MK EMH. Last October we struggled to find anything open and by midnight we were starving! We ended up eating fries at Cosmic Rays because they were done serving everything else and nothing else was open, not even a popcorn cart.

I know - hungry at Disney, especially on FD?! Yes, sadly we were. I think it was because we'd eaten so much during the trip up to that point we were used to eating every so many hours/our tummies were stretched. LOL

This was something we didn't think about until it was too late.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Tip #2 - Park Hoppers are the Night Owl's best friend. You don't want be without Hoppers and get stuck in an early closing park like Animal Kingdom or Epcot. You still have 3 or 4 hours of prime ride time after these places close. Spend the day at the park of your choice then hop to Magic Kingdom or DHS for late night fun.

 

[lvforvaca]

We also had a hard time finding food after 10:30 in MK. We were waiting for 2nd parade and hadn't eaten, very hard to find things open.
I agree that MK at night is so wonderful! Just walk right on most rides. So fun to be in the park without as many people. Agree about the posted ride times, almost everything is walk on with exception of PP and SM but some of the boards still say there is a long line.

 

[maryj11]

What about after wishes on a crowded day how will lines be ? I hate to miss wishes !

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to mazimize their time the best they could.

She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they were could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that her true wait time was over an hour. 45 mins at the gate plus whatever time it took to hurry to the attraction plus 15 mins in line.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about the same time period and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

I didn't dare ask how long her family waited for Fantasmic.